by Trevor Hunnicutt, Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol expressed in Washington on Wednesday their desire to strengthen their collaboration to deter North Korea from any nuclear escalation, amid growing concern over the regarding the reinforcement of the ballistic arsenal of Pyongyang.

“Today we celebrate an ironclad alliance, a shared vision for our future and a deep friendship,” Joe Biden said during a ceremony to welcome the South Korean leader to the White House. about relations between the two countries.

Yoon Suk-yeol said he wanted to celebrate 70 years of relations between the United States and North Korea, marked by “values” such as the common protection of “freedom”.

This first formal state visit by a South Korean leader to the United States in more than a decade is an opportunity for Joe Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol to issue a warning to North Korean number one Kim Jong-un .

Pyongyang’s rapid advances in its armament programs, with an arsenal including ballistic missiles capable of reaching American territory, have raised questions about the hypothesis that the United States chooses to use nuclear weapons to protect South Korea as part of their “extended deterrence” pact.

According to opinion polls, a majority of South Koreans say they are in favor of Seoul acquiring its own nuclear bombs, a possibility to which Washington is opposed.

During a press briefing, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the one-day summit between Joe Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to yield “major results on issues such as extended deterrence, cybersecurity, climate and economic investments.

A new pact will give South Korea detailed information and a say in contingency plans to prevent and respond to any nuclear incident on the peninsula, US officials said.

While Washington and Seoul will again call on Pyongyang to engage in diplomatic action, there are plans to deploy major US military technology, including a ballistic-capable submarine, to South Korea for the first time since the 1980s. as a show of force, senior Biden administration officials said during a telephone press briefing.

They stressed that no US nuclear weapons would be deployed on the Korean Peninsula and no control over the US nuclear arsenal would be given to Seoul.

These measures should be deemed insufficient by some in South Korea who have called for a strong response to reverse the direction taken by Pyongyang with its ballistic and nuclear programs. But they could allow Yoon Suk-yeol to claim that Washington takes Seoul’s concerns seriously.

In addition, the American representatives indicated that the United States kept China informed beforehand of the measures it was taking, a way of displaying Washington’s desire to ease tensions in the region.

(Reporting Trevor Hunnicutt, Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom; Jean Terzian, editing by Kate Entringer)

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